ACT - The Association of Christian Teachers

for Christians working in education

Children living in poverty are being severely disadvantaged in the British school system.

Children living in poverty are being severely disadvantaged in the British school system.

Children living in poverty are being severely disadvantaged in the British school system, according to a new survey which warns crime is a consequence of inadequate support for such disadvantaged youth.

Problems in areas such as nutrition, the ability to gain adequate rest and the cost of school uniforms and transport were among issues hindering the education of poverty-stricken children, the poll by national children’s charity Buttle UK found.

Buttle UK polled 1,200 child support workers across the UK to gain their insights into how poverty affected a child’s education.

It found 88% of frontline workers had seen parents unable to afford basics such as food, fuel and other household items at least once a week, with 77% seeing children who had to be fed either breakfast or dinner at school.

A total of 55% of respondents had worked with children who did not have an appropriate bed of their own at least once a week.

“Not having regular nutritious meals at home or not having an appropriate bed to sleep in means that children do not have the basic foundations for healthy growth or the energy to concentrate at school and learn,” the report said.